Petras: The Arab Revolt and the Imperialist Counterattack

EDITOR'S NOTE: I congratulate James Petras on the publication of another timely book: The Arab Revolt and the Imperialist Counter Attack. He describes the long term and the short term "causes" or motivations of "revolutions, and the "non-revolution" of the Arab or Middle East "revolutions," "It is premature to celebrate a popular democratic revolution…. " he deliberates.

I like the way James Petras writes and the effort he puts into collecting information and presenting it in a meaningful and powerful manner, with impact, even though he writes like a lecturer. He is right in almost everything he writes. He is effective! Almost every time I read him, I come away feeling that things are even worse than I had thought they were.

There is a reason why brilliant anti-Zionist investigative writers such as Petras are effectively kept out of mainstream press and many phony progressive online publications. Why? “Because their extensive exhaustive research work and words are weapons even more threatening than those of the defending resistance.”

Petras’ book provides a perspective and context for understanding this decades' anti-government uprisings and pro-democracy movements in the world. He does illustrate, succinctly and simply, the duplicity and self -interest upon which the US and its pro-Zionist allies bases its foreign policies. It is essential and recommended reading for anyone who wishes to understand what is really happening in the world today and why, especially in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Arabia, The Emirates, the entire Middle Eastern conflict area and… the US Political arena!

— Debbie Menon

THE ARAB REVOLT AND THE IMPERIALIST COUNTERATTACK

James Petras

SYNOPSIS

When the popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia overthrew the public faces of the imperial-backed regimes in the region, it inspired supporters of popular democracy worldwide. However, as the Arab revolt spread from North Africa to the Gulf and deepened its demands, the Empire struck back. The ruling military junta in Egypt cracked down on the prodemocracy movement as its autocratic “partners in the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula drowned the civil society movements in blood.

While standing by the crumbling dictatorships elsewhere in the region, the United States, France and the United Kingdom seized the opportunity to intervene in Libya under cover of a new “responsibility to protect” doctrine authorizing humanitarian intervention. But instead, NATO took sides in the Libyan civil war, unleashing a savage bombing campaign against the very people it purported toprotect, reducing the Libyan capital and surrounding cities to rubble, and opening itself to charges of war crimes.

These essays chronicle the growing militarization of US policy in North Africa and the Gulf and the historic confrontation between the Arab democratic revolts and the imperial backed satraps. Bearing witness to the ragtag rebel victory enabled by NATO in Libya and ongoing chaos throughout the region, Petras disassembles America’s collapsing Middle East policy.

On December 8 2010 The Club of Mexican Journalists awarded James Petras its prestigious International Journalism Prize for Investigation and Analysis of the News within the global context.

"Dr. James Petras is one of the greatest personalities of critical intellect of our time. His numerous books, which have been translated into many languages, and his opinion articles which are invariably defined by their rigor and decisive data, widely documented and placed within their social context, have turned this thinker into one of the most lucid and coherent minds of recent times. Naturally, this has earned Dr. Petras the resentment of those who feel affected by his tireless efforts. Nevertheless, countless readers all over the world seek the words of this thinker to defend themselves from propaganda that intends to make us sympathize with the single-minded thinking of neoliberalism."

This book not only provides a detailed account and illustration of Israeli war crimes in Gaza but equally important it provides a comprehensive analysis of the reasons why more and more people are recognizing that the US Congress and White House are zionized occupied territory.

"James Petras, teacher and humanist of a rare, encyclopedic, analytical intelligence, author of this compact masterwork, has long been recognized as the foremost social scientist of the United States…" Frederic Clairmont See full review